Tuesday 9/19

Texture / Song Maps

SO.... There are a couple ways to think about texture

1. One is the think about the texture at any given moment in a song​(or the overall 'feel' / vibe )

2. The other is the think about the overall use of texture throughout the song(Think of the shape of the 'song map' , and how the artist is strategically using the texture changes throughout the entire song

Possible Ways to describe / Judge Timbre :

Thick -------------- VS ------------- Thin

Complex ----------- VS -------------Simple

?? others ??

​Descriptive Words?

​Intense Heavy Metal VS. Soft ...

Genres?

​​Folk Country VS. Electro​

Are there any Common uses / Techniques employed by artists writing songs?

What are they trying to achieve with these techniques?

Are there any that you like / Dislike (personal preference)

How (if at all) does texture affect :

Genre

The Activity we might use the song for

The emotional effect the song has on us

our like/dislike judgement (personal)

Other Judgement Criteria: Musical Skill, $$ Success, Social Value,

​

Functional Harmony

Harmony : Combination of simultaneous Pitches

Harmony VS Functional Harmony

This does not specify if the simultaneous pitches sound Good/Right or Bad/Wrong Together - it simply means multiple notes played/sounded simultaneously

***In other words, the piano has 88 keys - any time we push down multiple keys simultaneously, we are creating harmony , even though they might not sound 'correct' or 'good'***

HOWEVERmany times when we say harmony, it is implied that we mean FUNCTIONAL HARMONY , which is harmony that sounds good/right

*** Someone with experience playing piano knows combinations of those 88 pitches that sound 'good' and 'right/correct' when played simultaneously****

RULE OF THUMB: All Music on the Radio uses Functional Harmony ( The point of the radio is for A LOT of PEOPLE to listen to the station == Good Ratings)

This is the type of Harmony we would learn in school or private lessons

I.E. : Major/Minor Scales , Major/Minor Chords etc.

The difference between FUNCTION HARMONY and NON FUNCTIONAL HARMONY is drastic and can be heard IMMEDIATELY(Generally we would not even hear this unless we seek them out...)

Functional Harmony

Non - Functional

Classical Vocal Music

Classical Piano Music

Jazz

Pop??

There are very few examples of this type of Harmony/Music in Popular Music Genres ( i.e. R&B / Rock / Hip Hop / Country Pop etc.) - We see it much more in Classical / Jazz music Where there is more experimentation​This is for obvious reasons as most people would not like listening to these examples (myself included!!) It is a very small group of people who enjoy this type of music that is lacking in conventional functional harmony!

The Pentatonic scale is a small example of how our ears have been trained to be partial to certain groups of notes when they are put together(Some people say it is actually genetic - it is in our DNA that certain notes sound better together than other)

We have all been exposed to music that abides by all the same basic rules , and have trained our ears to know whatnotes sound good together and what sounds bad according to those rules

When talking specifically about what notes/pitches sound good when played together, we break it down into 2 categories:

Scales and Chords

Scale

Musical Scale: In music theory, a scale is any set of musical notes ordered by fundamental frequency or pitch.

OR

A group of notesplayed in succession that sound Good/Right together

This is another concept that we take from the greeks

The greeks had specific groups of notes that they believed when played together represented and would even inspire certain emotions when humans heard them

They called these MODES

They believed in this so much that they would use these groups of notes to compose songs

Depending on the USE for the song (celebration, mourning, sporting, war)they would choose notes only from the appropriate mode

This is also something that we take from the Greeks, as even until this day we associate Major Scales/Chords with Happy and Minor Scales/Chords with Sad

Chords

Where scales deal with groups of notes played in succession, Chords refer to notes that are played/ sounded simultaneously

A Chord is : 3 or more notes simultaneously

Think of the timeline of Harmony - We started out with just one melody line of Gregorian chant, Then they added a Drone, then a second line of Melody, giving us 3 separate notes sounding at one time. this gives us a chord!

Many of the examples of innovation in that timeline were attempts to figure out how to successfully (in a way that sounds good) put scales with chords.

If we think of 2 components of a song : Melody and Harmony in a Given Pop song these will be represented by a vocal melody, and a chordal instrument (such as piano or guitar)

Harmony is one big way artists and composers provide familiarity in music....

The reason some notes sound good together is because we are familiar with the sound .. WE are used to it and we are comfortable with how it sounds

Think of how many Major/Minor Chords the average person has heard over the course of their lifetime(Every song you or I have ever heard contains these - wit the exception of song with non functional harmony)

When we hear major and minor chords in the song, this is not the first time we are hearing that chord. we have heard it many times before!

Therefore we are already familiar with the song ( even if it is a small aspect! )

One Important Device in Music for creating Familiarity is the Chord Progression​

Chord Progression: A Series of Chords played in Specific Order

Examples:

All of MeHelloBoth songs repeat the Chord Progression right from the start of the song

This gives us a musical home and some familiarity before the vocals come in - now that we have that home established we can focus on themelodyandlyrics

​Further Repitition : Both songs are actually written with the same chord progression! (The sound a little different because they are in different ranges as adele sings higher)

So we have 2 aspects of repetition: (1) The progression repeating within the song, (2) and the progression repeating from Other Songs